Introductory matter

Persons represented. King Henry the fifth: Duke of Bedford, his Brother: Duke of Gloster [Duke of Gloucester] his Brother: Duke of Exeter, his Uncle. Duke of York. Archbishop of Canterbury. Earl of Warwick. Earl of Westmoreland. Earl of Salisbury. Earl of Cambridge. Bishop of Ely. Lord Scroop. Sir Thomas Grey, Sir Thomas Erpingham. Gower, Officer; Fluellen, Officer; Jamy, Officer; Macmorris, Officer; Bates, Soldier in the King's Army: Court, Soldier in the King's Army: Williams, Soldier in the King's Army: Nym, Soldier in the same; Pistol, Soldier in the same; Bardolph, Soldier in the same; Boy, their Companion. a Herald. Chorus. Charles the sixth, the French King: Dauphin, his Son [Lewis]. Constable of France. Duke of Orleans. Duke of Bourbon. Duke of Burgundy. Lord Grandprée [Grandprée] Lord Rambures. an Embassador [Ambassador]. Governor of Harfleur. Mountjoy [Montjoy], a Herald. a Messenger. a French Gentleman. Isabel, the French Queen: Catherine [Katherine], her Daughter. Alice, a Lady attending Catherine. Hostess, Wife to Pistol. Divers other Attendants, Lords, Ladies, Officers, Soldiers, &c. French and English. Scene, dispers'd; in England, and France.

HENRY V. ACT I.

[Prologue] Enter Chorus.14Q0721
O, for a muse of fire, that would ascend
The brightest heaven of invention!
A kingdom for a stage, princes to act,
And monarchs to behold the swelling scene!
Then should the warlike Harry, like himself,
Assume the port of Mars; and, at his heels,
Leash'd in like hounds, should famine, sword, and fire,
Crouch for employment. But pardon, gentles all,
The flat unraised spirit ^note, that hath dar'd,
On this unworthy scaffold, to bring forth
So great an object: Can this cock-pit hold
The vasty field ^note of France? or may we cram,
Within this wooden O, the very casques
That did affright the air at Agincourt?
O, pardon! since a crooked figure may
Attest, in little place, a million;

And let us, cyphers to this great accompt,
On your imaginary forces work:
Suppose, within the girdle of these walls
Are now confin'd two mighty monarchies ^note,
Whose high-upreared and abutting fronts
The perilous narrow ocean parts asunder:
Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts;
Into a thousand parts divide one man,
And make imaginary puissance:
Think, when we talk of horses, that you see them
Printing their proud hoofs i'the receiving ^note earth:
For 'tis your thoughts that now must deck our kings,
Carry them here and there; jumping o'er times;
Turning the accomplishment of many years
Into an hour-glass; For the which supply,
Admit me chorus to this history;
Who, prologue-like, your humble patience pray,
Gently to hear, kindly to judge, our play. [Exit. SCENE I. London. A Room in the King's Palace. Enter the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Bishop of Ely.

Can.
My lord, I'll tell you,—that self bill is urg'd,
Which, in the eleventh year o' the last king's reign,
Was like, and had indeed against us pass'd,
But that the scambling and unquiet time
Did push it out of farther question.

Ely.
But how, my lord, shall we resist it now?

Can.
It must be thought on. If it pass against us,
We lose the better half of our possession ^note:
For all the temporal lands, which men devout
By testament have given to the church,

Would they strip from us; being valu'd thus,—
As much as would maintain, to the king's honour,
Full fifteen earls, and fifteen hundred knights;
Six thousand and two hundred good esquires;
And, to relief of lazars, and weak age,
Of indigent faint souls, past corporal toil,
A hundred alms-houses, right well supply'd;
And to the coffers of the king, beside,
A thousand pounds by the year: Thus runs the bill.

Ely.
This would drink deep.

Can.
'Twould drink the cup and all.

Ely.
But what prevention?

Can.
The king is full of grace, and fair regard:

Ely.
And a true lover of the holy church.

Can.
The courses of his youth promis'd it not.
The breath no sooner left his father's body,
But that his wildness, mortify'd in him,
Seem'd to die too: yea, at that very moment,
Consideration like an angel came,
And whip'd the offending Adam out of him;
Leaving his body as a paradise,
To envelop and contain celestial spirits.
Never was such a sudden scholar made:
Never came reformation in a flood,
With such a heady current ^note, scouring faults;
Nor never hydra-headed wilfulness
So soon did lose his seat, and all at once,
As in this king.

Ely.
We are blessed in the change.

Can.
Hear him but reason in divinity,
And, all-admiring, with an inward wish
You would desire, the king were made a prelate:

Hear him debate of common-wealth affairs,
You would say—it hath been all-in-all his study:
List his discourse of war, and you shall hear
A fearful battle render'd you in musick:
Turn him to any cause ^note of policy,
The Gordian knot of it he will unloose,
Familiar as his garter; that, when he speaks,
The air, a charter'd libertine, is still,
And the mute wonder lurketh in men's ears,
To steal his sweet and honey'd sentences;
So that the art ^note and practic part of life14Q0722
Must be the mistress to this theorique:
Which is a wonder, how his grace should glean it;
Since his addiction was to courses vain;
His companies unletter'd, rude, and shallow;
His hours fill'd up with riots, banquets, sports;
And never noted in him any study,
Any retirement, any sequestration
From open haunts and popularity.

Ely.
The strawberry grows underneath the nettle;
And wholsome berries thrive and ripen best,
Neighbour'd by fruit of baser quality:
And so the prince obscur'd his contemplation
Under the veil of wildness; which, no doubt,
Grew like the summer grass, fastest by night,
Unseen, yet crescive in his faculty.

Can.
It must be so: for miracles are ceas'd;
And therefore we must needs admit the means,
How things are perfected.

Ely.
But, my good lord,
How now for mitigation of this bill
Urg'd by the commons? Doth his majesty

Incline to it, or no?

Can.
He seems indifferent;
Or, rather, swaying more upon our part,
Than cherishing the exhibiters against us:
For I have made an offer to his majesty,—
Upon our spiritual convocation;
And in regard of causes now in hand,
Which I have open'd to his grace at large,
As touching France,—to give a greater sum,
Than ever at one time the clergy yet
Did to his predecessors part withal.

Ely.
How did this offer seem receiv'd, my lord?

Can.
With good acceptance of his majesty:
Save, that there was not time enough to hear
(As, I perceiv'd, his grace would fain have done)
The severals, and unhidden passages,
Of his true titles to some certain dukedoms;
And, generally, to the crown and seat of France,
Deriv'd from Edward, his great grandfather.

Ely.
What was the impediment that broke this off?

Can.
The French ambassador, upon that instant,
Crav'd audience: and the hour, I think, is come,
To give him hearing; Is it four o'clock?

Ely.
It is.

Can.
Then go we in, to know his embassy:
Which I could, with a ready guess, declare,
Before the Frenchman speaks ^note a word of it.

Ely.
I'll wait upon you; and I long to hear it. [Ex. SCENE II. The same. A Room of State in the same. Enter King Henry, and Train of Nobles; Dukes of Bedford, Gloster, and Exeter; Earl of Westmoreland, &c.

Kin.
Where is my gracious lord of Canterbury?

Exe.
Not here in presence.

Kin.
Send for him, good uncle. [Exit an Att.

Wes.
Shall we call in the ambassador, my liege?14Q0723

Kin.
Not yet, my cousin; we would be resolv'd,
Before we hear him, of some things of weight,
That task our thoughts, concerning us and France. Enter Canterbury, and Ely.

Can.
God, and his angels, guard your sacred throne,
And make you long become it!

Kin.
Sure, we thank you.
My learned lord, we pray you to proceed;
And justly and religiously unfold,
Why the law Salique, which they ^note have in France,
Or should, or should not, bar us ^note in our claim.
And God forbid, my dear and faithful lord,
That you should fashion, wrest, or bow your reading,
Or nicely charge your understanding soul
With opening titles miscreate, whose right
Suits not in native colours with the truth;
For God doth know, how many, now in health,
Shall drop their blood in approbation
Of what your reverence shall incite us to:
Therefore take heed how you impawn our person,
How you awake the sleeping ^note sword of war;
We charge you in the name of God, take heed:
For never two such kingdoms did contend,
Without much fall of blood; whose guiltless drops
Are every one a woe, a sore complaint,
'Gainst him, whose wrong ^note gives edge unto the sword ^note
That makes such waste in brief mortality.
Under this conjuration, speak, my lord:

And we ^note will hear, note, and believe in heart,
That what you speak is in your conscience wash'd
As pure as sin with baptism ^note.

Can.
Then hear me,14Q0724 gracious sovereign,—and you peers,
That owe yourselves, your lives, and services ^note,
To this imperial throne;—There is no bar
To make against your highness' claim to France,
But this, which they produce from Pharamond,—
In terram Salicam mulieres né succedant, ^note
No woman shall ^note succeed in Salique land:
Which Salique land the French unjustly gloze
To be the realm of France, and Pharamond
The founder of this law and female bar.
Yet their own authors ^note faithfully affirm,
That the land Salique is in ^note Germany,
Between the floods of Sala and of Elbe:14Q0725
Where Charles the great, having subdu'd the Saxons,
There left behind and settl'd certain French;
Who, holding in disdain the German women
For some unhonest manners of their life ^note,
Establish'd there this ^note law,—to wit, No female
Should be inheritrix in Salique-land;
Which Salique, as I said, 'twixt Elbe and Sala,
Is, at this day, in Germany call'd—Meisen.
Thus doth ^note it well appear, the Salique law
Was not devised for the realm of France:
Nor did the French possess the Salique land
Until four hundred one and twenty years
After defunction ^note of king Pharamond,
Idly suppos'd the founder of this law;
Who dy'd within the year of our redemption
Four hundred twenty six; and Charles the great

Subdu'd the Saxons, and did seat the French
Beyond the river Sala, in the year
Eight hundred five. Besides, their writers say,
King Pepin, which deposed Childerick,
Did, as heir general, being descended
Of Blithild, which was daughter to king Clothair,
Make claim and title to the crown of France.
Hugh Capet also,—that usurp'd ^note the crown
Of Charles the duke of Lorain, sole heir male
Of the true line and stock of Charles the great,—
To fine his ^note title with some show ^note of truth,
(When, in ^note pure truth, it was corrupt and naught)
Convey'd himself as heir ^note to the lady Lingare, ^note
Daughter to Charlemain, who was the son
To Lewis the emperor, and Lewis the son
Of Charles the great. Also king Lewis the ninth ^note,
Who was sole heir to the usurper Capet,
Could not keep quiet in his conscience,
Wearing the crown of France, 'till satisfy'd
That fair queen Isabel, his grandmother,
Was lineal of the lady Ermengare,
Daughter to Charles the foresaid duke of Lorain;
By the which marriage, the line of Charles the great
Was re-united to the crown of France.
So that, as clear as is the summer's sun,
King Pepin's title, and Hugh Capet's claim,
King Lewis his satisfaction, all appear
To hold in right and title of the female:
So do the kings of France unto this ^note day;
Howbeit they would hold up this Salique law,
To bar your highness claiming from the female;
And rather choose14Q0726 to hide them in a net,

Than amply to unbare ^{note note note} their crooked titles,
Usurp'd from you and your progenitors.

Kin.
May I ^note, with right and conscience, make this claim?

Can.
The sin upon my head, dread sovereign!
For in the book of Numbers is it writ—
When the son dies ^note, let the inheritance
Descend unto the daughter. Gracious lord ^note,
Stand for your own; unwind your bloody flag;
Look back unto your mighty ancestors:
Go, my dread lord, to your great grandsire's grave ^note,
From whom you claim; invoke his warlike spirit,
And your great uncle's, Edward the black prince;
Who on the French ground play'd a tragedy,
Making defeat on the full power of France;
Whiles ^note his most mighty father on a hill
Stood smiling, to behold his lyon's whelp
Forage in blood ^note of French nobility.—
O noble English, that could entertain
With half their forces the full pride of ^note France;
And let another half stand laughing by,
All out of work, and cold for action!

Ely.
Awake remembrance of these valiant dead,
And with your puissant arm renew their feats:
You are their heir, you sit upon their throne;
The blood and courage, that renowned them,
Runs in your veins; and my thrice-puissant liege
Is in the very May-morn of his youth,
Ripe for exploits and mighty enterprizes.

Exe.
Your brother kings and monarchs of the earth
Do all expect that you should rouze yourself,
As did the former lions of your blood.

Wes.
They know, your grace hath cause, and means, and might;

So hath your highness14Q0727; never king of England
Had nobles richer, and more loyal subjects;
Whose hearts have left their bodies here in England,
And lye pavilion'd in the fields ^note of France.

Can.
O, let their bodies follow, my dear liege,
With blood ^note, and sword, and fire, to win your right:
In aid whereof, we of the spiritualty
Will raise your highness such a mighty sum,
As never did the clergy at one time
Bring in to any of your ancestors.

Kin.
We must not only arm to invade the French;
But lay down our proportions to defend
Against the Scot, who will make road upon us
With all advantages.

Can.
They of those marches, gracious sovereign,
Shall be a wall sufficient to defend
Our inland from the pilfering borderers.

Kin.
We do not mean the coursing snatchers ^note only,
But fear the main intendment of the Scot,
Who hath been still a giddy neighbour to us:
For you shall read, that my great grandfather
Never went with his forces into France,
But that the Scot on his unfurnish'd kingdom
Came pouring, like the tide into a breach,
With ample and brim fulness of his force;
Galling the gleaned land with hot assays;
Girding with grievous siege castles, and towns;
That England, being empty of defence,
Hath shook and trembl'd at the ill neigbourhood.

Can.
She hath been then more fear'd than harm'd, my liege:
For hear her but exampl'd ^note by herself,—
When all her chivalry hath been in France,

And she a mourning widow of her nobles,
She hath herself not only well defended,
But taken, and impounded as a stray,
The king of Scots; whom she did send to France,
To fill king Edward's fame with prisoner kings;
And make her ^note chronicle as rich with praise,
As is the ouse and bottom ^note of the sea
With sunken wreck and sumless treasuries. ^note

Wes.
But there's ^note14Q0728 a saying, very old and true,—
  If that you will France win,
  Then with Scotland first begin:
For once the eagle England being in prey,
To her unguarded nest the weazel Scot
Comes sneaking, and so sucks her princely eggs;
Playing the mouse, in absence of the cat,
To taint and ^{note note} havock more than she can eat.

Exe.
It follows then, the cat must stay at home:
Yet that is but a crude ^{note note} necessity;
Since we have locks to safeguard necessaries,
And pretty traps to catch the petty thieves.
While ^note that the armed hand doth fight abroad,
The advised head defends itself at home:
For government,14Q0729 though high, and low, and lower,
Put into parts, doth keep in one consent;
Congruing ^note in a full and natural close,
Like musick.

Can.
True: ^note therefore doth heaven divide
The state of man in divers functions,
Setting endeavour in continual motion;
To which is fixed, as an aim or but,
Obedience: for so work the honey bees;
Creatures, that,14Q0730 by a rule in nature, teach

The art ^note of order to a peopl'd kingdom.
They have a king, and officers of sorts: ^note
Where some, like magistrates, correct at home:
Others, like merchants, venture trade abroad:
Others, like soldiers, armed in their stings,
Make boot upon the summer's velvet bud ^note;
Which pillage they with merry march bring home
To the tent-royal of their emperor:
Who, busy'd in his majesty ^note, surveys
The singing mason ^note building roofs of gold;
The civil citizens kneading up ^note the honey;
The poor mechanick porters crouding in
Their heavy burthens at his narrow gate;
The sad-ey'd justice, with his surly hum,
Delivering o'er to executors pale
The lazy yawning drone ^note. I this infer,—
That many things, having full reference
To one consent, may work contrariously:
As many arrows, loosed several ways,
Fly to ^note one mark;
As many several ^note ways meet in one town;
As many fresh streams run in one self sea ^note;
As many lines close in the dial's center;
So may a thousand actions, once ^note afoot,
End in ^note one purpose, and be all well born
Without defeat. Therefore to France, my liege.
Divide your happy England into four;
Whereof take you one quarter into France,
And you withal shall make all Gallia shake:
If we, with thrice that power ^note left at home,
Cannot defend our own door ^note from the dog,
Let us be worry'd; and our nation lose

The name of hardiness, and policy

Kin.
Call in the messengers sent from the dauphin. [Exeunt some Attendants. King takes his Throne.
Now are we well resolv'd: and,—by God's help;
And yours, the noble sinews of our power,—
France being ours, we'll bend it to our awe,
Or break it all to pieces: Or there we'll sit,
Ruling, in large and ample empery,
O'er France, and all her almost kingly dukedoms;
Or lay these bones in an unworthy urn,
Tombless, with no remembrance over them:
Either our history shall, with full mouth,
Speak freely of our acts; or else our grave,
Like Turkish mute, shall have a tongueless mouth,
Not worship'd with a waxen epitaph ^note.— Enter certain Embassadors, and Train, usher'd.
Now are we well prepar'd to know the pleasure
Of our fair cousin dauphin; for, we hear,
Your greeting is from him, not from the king.

Emb.
Pleaseth your ^note majesty, to give us leave
Freely to render what we have in charge;
Or shall we sparingly shew you far off
The dauphin's meaning, and our embassy?

Kin.
We are no tyrant, but a christian king;
Unto whose grace our passion is ^note as subject;
As ^note are our ^note wretches fetter'd in our prisons:
Therefore, with frank and with uncurbed plainness,
Tell us the dauphin's mind.

Emb.
Thus then, in few.
Your highness, lately sending into France,
Did claim some certain dukedoms, in the right
Of your great predecessor, Edward ^note the third.

In answer of which claim, the prince our master
Says,—that you savour too much of your youth,
And bids you be advis'd; there's nought in France,
That can be with a nimble galliard won;
You cannot revel into dukedoms there:
He therefore sends you, meeter for your spirit ^note,
This tun &dagger2; of treasure; and, in lieu of this,
Desires you, let the dukedoms, that you claim,
Hear no more of you. This the dauphin speaks.

Kin.
What treasure, uncle?

Exe.
Tennis-balls, my liege.

Kin.
We are glad, the dauphin is so pleasant with us;
His present, and your pains, we thank you for:
When we have match'd our rackets to these balls,
We will, in France, by God's grace, play a set,
Shall strike his father's crown into the hazard:
Tell him, he hath made a match with such a wrangler,
That all the courts of France will be ^note disturb'd
With chaces. And we understand him well,
How he comes o'er us with our wilder days,
Not measuring what use we made of them.
We never valu'd this poor seat of England;
And therefore, living hence,14Q0731 did give ourself
To barbarous licence, As 'tis ever common,
That men are merriest when they are from home:
But tell the dauphin,—I will keep my state,
Be like a king, and shew my sail of greatness,
When I do rouze me in my throne of France:
For that I have lay'd by my ^note majesty,
And plodded like a man for working-days;
But I will rise there with so full a glory,
That I will dazzle all the eyes of France,

Yea, strike the dauphin blind to look on us.
And tell the pleasant prince,—this mock of his
Hath turn'd his balls to gun-stones; and his soul
Shall stand sore charged for the wasteful vengeance
That shall fly with them: for many a thousand widows
Shall this his mock mock out of their dear husbands;
Mock mothers from their sons, mock castles down;
And some are yet ungotten ^note, and unborn,
That shall have cause to curse the dauphin's scorn.
But this lies all within the will of God,
To whom I do appeal; And in whose name,
Tell you the dauphin, I am coming on,
To venge me as I may, and to put forth
My rightful hand in a well-hallow'd cause.
So, get you hence in peace: and tell the dauphin,—
His jest will favour but of shallow wit,
When thousands weep, more than did laugh at it.—
Convey them with safe conduct.—Fare you well. [Exeunt Embassadors.

Exe.
This was a merry message.

Kin.
We hope to make the sender blush at it. [coming from his Throne.
Therefore, my lords, omit no happy hour,
That may give furtherance to our expedition:
For we have now no thought in us, but France;
Save those to God, that run before our business.
Therefore, let our proportions for these wars
Be soon collected; and all things thought upon,
That may, with reasonable swiftness, add
More feathers to our wings: for, God before,
We'll chide this ^note dauphin at his father's door.
Therefore, let every man now task his thought,

That this fair action may on foot be brought. [Exeunt. ACT II.

[Prologue] Enter Chorus.
Now all the youth of England are on fire,
And silken dalliance in the wardrobe lies;
Now thrive the armorers, and honour's thought
Reigns solely in the breast of every man:
They sell the pasture now, to buy the horse;
Following the mirror of all christian kings,
With winged heels, as English Mercuries.
For now sits expectation in the air;
And hides a sword, from hilts unto the point,
With crowns imperial, ^note crowns, and coronets,
Promis'd to Harry, and his followers.
The French, advis'd by good intelligence
Of this most dreadful preparation,
Shake in their fear; and with pale policy
Seek to divert the English purposes.
O, England,—model to thy inward greatness,
Like little body with a mighty heart,—
What might'st thou do, that honour would thee do,
Were all thy children kind and natural!
But see thy fault! France hath in thee found out
A nest of hollow bosoms, which she ^note fills
With treacherous crowns: and three corrupted men—
One, Richard earl of Cambridge; and the second,
Henry lord Scroop of Masham; and the third,
Sir Thomas Grey knight of Northumberland,—
Have, for the gilt of France, (o, guilt indeed!)

Confirm'd conspiracy with fearful France;
And by their hands this grace of kings must die,
(If hell and treason hold their promises)
Ere he take ship for France, e'en in ^note Southampton.
Linger your patience on; and well ^note digest
The abuse of distance, while we force a play.
The sum is pay'd; the traitors are agreed;
The king is set from London; and the scene
Is now transported, gentles, to Southampton:
There is the play-house now, there must you sit:
And thence to France shall we convey you safe,
And bring you back, charming the narrow seas
To give you gentle pass; for, if we may,
We'll not offend one stomach with our play.
But, 'till the14Q0732 king come forth, and not 'till then,
Unto Southampton do we shift our scene. [Exit. SCENE I. The same. A Street. Enter Bardolph, and Nym, meeting.

Bar.

Well met, corporal Nym.

Nym.

Good morrow, lieutenant Bardolph.

Bar.

What, are ancient Pistol and you friends yet?

Nym.

For my part, I care not: I say little; but when time shall serve, there shall be smiles14Q0733;—but that shall be as it may. I dare not fight; but I will wink, and hold out mine iron: It is a simple one; But what though? it will toast cheese; and it will endure cold, as another man's sword will: and there's an end.

Bar.

I will bestow a breakfast, to make you friends; and we'll be all three sworn brothers to France: let it be so, good corporal Nym.

Nym.

'Faith, I will live so long as I may, that's the

certain of it; and, when I cannot live any longer, I will do as I may: that is my rest, that is the rendezvous of it.

Bar.

It is certain, corporal, that he is marry'd to Nell Quickly: and, certainly, she did you wrong; for you were troth-plight to her.

Nym.

I cannot tell; things must be as they may: Men may sleep; and they may have their throats about them at that time; and, some say, knives have edges. It must be as it may: though patience be a tired mare, ^note yet she will plod. There must be conclusions. Well, I cannot tell.